Comprehensive Guide to Apple Notes Not Syncing

#AppleNotes

Sometimes, you may find that Apple Notes isn't syncing for some reasons. For example, you have written some texts on your iPhone, but they didn't get synchronized to your Mac. This is an infamous issue that happened to iCloud. You can find many similar posts on the Apple forum:

• Notes Not Syncing Across Devices
• iPhone and iPad not sync notes
• notes not syncing

Before we dive into details, you should understand, that there're 2 kinds of device cases that cause this issue.

1. The device you just wrote some texts isn't synced to iCloud, we call it the source device
2. The device you want it to be updated, we call it the target device

A source or target device problem?

The first step: check if your notes are live on iCloud web!

If they're updated, it means that your notes are saved to iCloud safely, you only need to try the steps below to trigger a sync on your the target device.

If they're not updated, it means that your notes aren't saved to iCloud yet, you need to try the steps below to trigger a sync on your the source device.

Common things to check

1. Check if you have signed in to the same Apple ID on both source & target devices
2. Check if you have enabled iCloud for Notes (Settings -> Your avatar -> iCloud -> Notes)
3. Check if your notes are being saved locally on your device (Make sure your notes are saved in iCloud section, neither On My iPhone nor On My Mac. You can disable it via Notes settings)

If you have checked all the tasks above, you can continue to try the steps below.

Restart Notes app

You can restart Notes app to trigger syncing. If you're seeing this spinning icon, it means Notes app is syncing. Wait a few minutes, your notes should be updated.

Restart your device

Sometimes, Notes process may be suspended, no matter how many times you have restarted the app, it doesn't sync. At this point, you should restart your device, which should help Notes process work again.

Update 'Fetch New Data' setting

You can also update 'Fetch New Data' setting to trigger a sync.

Go to Settings -> Notes -> Accounts -> Fetch New Data.

Change it to Manually, and wait a few minutes.
If it doesn't work, change it back to Automatically.

Sign out iCloud and back in again

iPhone

Settings -> Your avatar -> scroll down to click Sign Out, wait 1 minute, and sign in again.

Mac

System Settings -> Your avatar -> Sign Out, wait 1 minute, and sign in again.

Sync your notes via AirDrop, no iCloud needed

If none of above solutions works, you can try to share notes via AirDrop directly, no iCloud needed.

iPhone

On your note, click the share button, choose AirDrop in the popup, and then choose the target device to send.

Mac

Right-click the note, then click Share Note.

Choose AirDrop in the menu, and choose your target device to send.

Similarly, you can also share notes via Mail, or Messages. But note you might lose note styles. Prefer AirDrop if possible.

Check if you have enough iCloud storage space

iCloud doesn't work if you don't have enough iCloud storage space.

Settings -> Your avatar -> iCloud

You can either upgrade your iCloud plan or delete some unwanted photos, videos or anything saved on your iCloud to free some space.

Conclusion

These are the steps to resolve issues with Apple Notes not syncing.
If you have other solutions, feel free to share them in the comments.